Five Reasons Stranger Things 2 Is Better Than the Original

Five Reasons Stranger Things 2 Is Better Than the Original

Let it be known right off the spiked bat that I wasn't the world's biggest fan of STRANGER THINGS season one when it first hit Netflix. I'm not even that huge of a fan to this day as I struggled to get through the first season time and time again to prepare for this new season. But now that I've viewed every new episode of STRANGER THINGS 2 let me say that it's bigger and better the second time around.

Here are 5 reasons why.

5. New Characters

Let's kick this list of by talking about the one aspect that's usually the scourge of any given new season of any given series: the over-introduction of new characters. Usually, this trips up even the best TV due to the writers somehow thinking that the good old characters we came to know and love in the previous season(s) are no longer enough to satisfy the audience. Usually, this causes big problems. But not with STRANGER THINGS 2. Here the new characters, including Sean Astin's Bob, Sadie Sink's "Mad" Max, and her Rob Lowe lookin-ass brother (Dacre Montgomery) help bring new layers to old characters.

4. Halloween

The first season of STRANGER THINGS was coated in a love for all things horror. This was apparent from the very beginning with the John Carpenter-style synth score and the Stephen King homages out the wazoo. The horror aspects were the best part of season one and I'm happy to say The Duffer Brothers more than doubled down on all things spooky this new season with the whole mess taking place on and around Halloween in 1984. And here the brothers get to have their cake and eat it too: Horror and pop-culture references galore. The series has never been better.

3. More Steve

The man, the myth, the legend Steve Harrington returns for more nail-bat bashing this season and I couldn't have been happier. Sure he gets his ass handed to him yet again by a pretty boy, but being a pretty boy himself, maybe he should just get used to it. But still, Steve was originally written as the typical high school cool guy that breaks the sweet girl's heart before The Duffer Brothers decided to make him a hero of sorts in the first season. Like the horror aspects of season one mentioned above, The Brothers Duffer double-down on Steve the hero this time around and it makes for some of the very best moments from the series at large. Screw trying to set-up an X-MEN: ELEVEN spin-off, Netflix. Let's see one based on the many adventures of Steve & Dustin. Speaking of which...

2. Less Eleven

I know this is going to be a (relatively) controversial entry but I also know that there are people out there who agree whole-hearted with me when I say, "Why the hell does everyone love this Eleven character so damn much?" My like-minded brethren are out there - and I'm thinking they include The Duffer Brothers themselves as this season, even they didn't seem to know what to do with her character. This leads to Eleven being mostly on the sidelines and locked in cabins in the woods for the vast majority of the second season's 9-hour running time. And that's fine with me. But it brings up an interesting question: If an underwritten TV character spends an entire season staring at things and bleeding slightly from the nose (over and over and over) locked away in the woods, does she make a sound? Evidently, yes. And it sounded like a bad stand alone X-MEN spin-off episode.

1. More Dustin

"She will not be able to resist these pearls *Chewbacca gargle*." How can you not love Dustin? If you don't think Dustin is the best thing about this show then there's no hope for you, my friend. STRANGER THINGS just isn't a series that's ever going to grow on you. But for the rest of us, we couldn't be happier as The Duffer Brothers answered our biggest prayer from last season: "Please give us more Dustin in season 2." And they responded in kind: "If you want more of this loveable doof, you got 'em." The little guy with the new pearly whites *Chewie gargle* was front and center for almost episode (other than the Uncanny X-Teenagers spin-off) and the scenes with him laying traps for his new pet monster, armed with hockey pads and bologna slices is the best of the best. Dear season three, more, please.